Nintendo discusses the possibility of a demo for ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is without a doubt one of the most anticipated games of the holiday season. Featuring every character that has ever appeared in a Smash Bros. title, Ultimate could be the hit that Nintendo needs in what is shaping up to be a relatively quiet 2018 for the Switch in terms of first-party releases.

It took a few generations, but ever since the Switch launched, Nintendo has fully embraced demos and betas for the first time. We got our hands on both ARMS and Splatoon 2 before they hit store shelves thanks to the Testpunch and Splatfest events, but can we expect Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to get the same treatment?

In an interview with Nintendo senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen at Comic-Con this week, IGN asked about the prospect of a demo in the same vein as the Splatfest for the next Super Smash Bros. game:

“Very good question. Right now they’re focused very much on getting the game ready. We have a few other things to be talking about down the road between now and when it launches in December. We’ll hopefully have some news on that as we get closer to launch.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t a definitive affirmation from Trinen, but he didn’t outright deny that a demo for Smash could be on the way either. Personally, I’d be shocked if Nintendo didn’t hold some sort of beta weekend for the game to get everyone excited in the weeks before the game launches on December 7th. IGN also asked about DLC, which has been present in both single-player and multiplayer games from Nintendo in recent years:

“Obviously that was a big part of the Wii U game, but part of Mr. Sakurai’s approach is let’s really focus on getting the game done, and then once he has the game done, he’ll start to make some decisions about what he wants to do with other characters or DLC or things like that. Whether or not he decides to do DLC again, or whether or not he decides this is the ultimate edition and there’s nothing more I can fit in there, we’ll have to see as we get closer to launch.”